1. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, together with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), held the 4^th annual policy consultation in Seoul, on November 11. Ms. Oh Hyun-joo, Director-General for Development Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ms. Ursula Mueller, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator of OCHA, represented each side as a head of delegation.

2. At the meeting, both sides shared views on mutual policy priorities in the area of humanitarian assistance and discussed ways for cooperation in responding to global humanitarian needs such as Syrian refugees, protracted crises in Africa, including the Sahel region, and the Venezuela and Rohingya crises.

3. The ROK side explained that the ROK government revised its humanitarian assistance strategies in June 2019 in a bid to provide humanitarian assistance more effectively, and decided to join the Grand Bargain, an agreement reached by the international community, aiming to provide efficient and effective humanitarian assistance.

4. The OCHA side noted with satisfaction that over the recent years, the ROK government has steadily stepped up assistance for a number of humanitarian crises in the Syrian Arab Republic, the Republic of Iraq, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the Republic of Yemen and the Sahel region in Africa.

5. The two sides reaffirmed the importance of the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) managed by OCHA in order to support countries which do not receive full assistance from the international community such as the People's Republic of Bangladesh, Burkina Faso and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

6. In addition, the two sides discussed the progress in OCHA reform, global humanitarian needs and overview in 2021, and ways to enhance the ROK government’s contribution to OCHA.